Cuaderno Latinoamericano - Want to get a glimpse of the war in Iraq that Mexicans are getting? If so, check out this article. What impresses me from this report is the clear distinction between the war bombast of U.S. media reporting and the focus on the human face of the war in foreign media reporting. We don't even get a picture of the hopes and fears within the US of the consequences of the war. This is disturbing. What has become clear to me is that war is pure poison - and it destroys more than just the lives of Iraqis and US/British soldiers.

In my classrooms, students on opposite sides of the conflict are surly and impatient with one another. Among the grad students in the program that I help administer, vicious polemics are bandied about on listservs and irreparable divides are shaping up between opposing cliques. Even in my wife's church community, committees are falling apart and friendships are fraying - all because of this damned war.

The damage done by this war is profound and is very present right here in my own little world. Poison, pure poison.